WATERBURY -- When he announced his 2011 mayoral run, Neil M. O'Leary promised to do whatever it took to revitalize the city's struggling downtown.

He didn't just say it; O'Leary actually sang it, belting out that old Petula Clark tune, "Downtown." After he won, he hired an economic development official to lure new business to town.

But what should the downtown look like? Should he try to revive the city's golden days as a brass behemoth or turn the page, giving something totally fresh and new a try?

"These are the kind of decisions that can really help a city for a long time, or really hurt it, and nobody wants to be the poor guy who makes the wrong call," O'Leary said. "That's a lot of pressure."

As the former top cop, O'Leary knows more about patrolling the city streets than designing them, so he decided to turn to those who know best -- architects, designers and planners.

O'Leary was one of eight mayors from the eastern U.S. chosen to attend the Mayors' Institute on City Design, an all-expenses paid two-day conference held this month in Kentucky.

The so-called faculty aren't fishing for jobs; they are prohibited from working for a guest community for at least a year after a visit, O'Leary said. The faculty are there to learn, too, he said.

A small advance team from the institute visited Waterbury first, meeting with O'Leary and touring the city to help him consider what he might want to get out of the conference.

When he got to Kentucky, O'Leary gave a short introduction to Waterbury before brainstorming with his fellow mayors and about a dozen nationally known architects, designers and planners.

Here are the three big "takeaway" ideas, O'Leary said:

-- Leave the Green alone, and focus on Library Park;

-- Focus on redevelopment of Freight Street corridor;

-- At all costs, add sidings to the Waterbury rail line.

O'Leary said he was surprised the group thought the city ought to leave the Green alone, saying the city already made the most, or close to it, out of this tree-lined gathering place.

Most importantly, many residents like the Green as it is, and do not want the city to overhaul it or add a bandstand, as is suggested by a new grant-funded master plan, O'Leary said.

Instead, the planners wanted O'Leary to focus on Library Park.

Library Park is centrally located, across the street from the train station and a block from City Hall, and was designed by the famous architect Frederick Law Olmsted, son of the Central Park designer.

The planners thought Waterbury should turn Library Park into a green gateway to train commuters and a hub for the arts by adding public bathrooms, more benches and even tables.

The city should hold more festivals at the park, and restore that grandstand, instead of building a new one at the Green, they urged. It might require more police, but it would be worth it, they said.

The designers urged him

While the architects loved the city's design rock stars, like City Hall architect Cass Gilbert, they think the city's greatest assets are the Naugatuck River and the rail line.

The Naugatuck River, and the city's ambitious linear park plan, should do more than just draw tourists one day, planners said; if it is done right, it could revive the Freight Street corridor.

And Freight Street needs it. Right now, the 63-acre corridor is heavily blighted, with many of its old factories empty or underused, and several of the owners far, far behind on their city tax bills.

Planners urged the city to develop a master plan to resuscitate this area, and use tax auctions when necessary to seize control of the key properties for redevelopment and stop further blight.

O'Leary has asked city staff to seek redevelopment proposals for this area, emphasizing a desire for mixed use plans that would include a retail and residential component.

One engineer told O'Leary he should beg, borrow or steal any favor he had at his disposal to get additional sidings added to the Waterbury train line to boost rail traffic to and from the city.

Sidings are short, low-speed sections of track that branch off the main line that allow trains on the same line to pass, or allow a railroad company to store rolling stock.

More trains means more commuters. More commuters might mean more employed residents, both new ones who might move here and old ones who can use the train to find jobs, O'Leary said.

Not so long ago, O'Leary didn't even know what a siding was.

That is why O'Leary didn't realize what a big deal it was when the state's transportation commissioner, James Redeker, recently told him he planned to add sidings to the Waterbury line.

At the time, O'Leary wanted Redeker to approve a small train station renovation to raze the old SNET building, open bathrooms in the old baggage room and expand the parking lot.

With Redeker's support, the project is scheduled to be heard by the State Bond Commission at its December meeting, but the sidings may be a bigger win for the city, in the long run.

RECOMMENDATIONS

-- IDEA -- Leave the Green alone, and focus on turning Library Park into a gateway capitalizing on its location, its famous designer name and its blossoming festival tradition.

" I have written this a million times... move the major bus stop hub to the train station, leave one bus stop by the YMCA for that. The rest dispurse out one-two blocks each in every direction. Make the road around the green one way. Have diagnol parking on both sides of the road on the north side and one side on the south side. Next, finish renovating the disabled house in Brooklyn, move the people in the apartments on the green building there. Make a deal with UCONN and Post, get students in those apartments. Once you do that, restaurants and bars will do better, better businesses will move downtown. Find tax incentives for businesses, but contract them. No more dollar dreams, no more 90% of fake nike apparrell. Time to class the place up again. Reopen the old mall and get a starbucks, urban outfitters etc. Bring in the college kids, get rid of the trash in their pajamas hanging out smoking cigarettes all day on the green. Like I always tell visitors to Waterbury, its a gorgeous city, from the second floor up. "

" Success will mean populating the City with law abiding and productive citizens. One step in that direction would be to ban all group homes in residential areas, and concentrate the patients in large efficient mental institutions. This is not exactly a new idea, just a lesson which we seem to have forgotten. "

" Another idea is instead of compassion and handouts they should give drug addicted homeless the back end of police nightsticks instead of dinner and lodging. This would go a long way toward making Waterbury more attractive to employers. "

" Another study another contrast in opinions. If the mayor has b**** he would stick with his plan of over developing the Green.If he is like others that have done study after study then step aside and stop wasting OUR money. We need true leadership. "

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